Collins Family August 2016 Prayer Requests

Greetings from North Carolina,

Here are two requests for August:

* CILTA students start second semester on August 15 and hit it hard for four more months. Pray for Wes as he teaches a course he hasn’t taught for ten years. May he remember well and be a help to students who are training to be Bible translators and Christian cross-cultural workers.

* Pray for CILTA students in Lima, Peru as they study linguistics. They recently finished their first semester and have enjoyed a short break before hitting it hard again. May they learn what will be helpful to them for long-term ministry.

Thanks so much,

Wes

Collins Family July 2016 Prayer Requests

Pray for wisdom for the Mam Indians as they study the Word and work on Old Testament translation. May they have wisdom to engage the Scriptures in a culturally appropriate and godly way. For example, some cultural things the apostle Paul condoned, while others he condemned.

May the Mam—and all of us—take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.

Collins Family June 2016 Prayer Requests

Here are a few prayer requests for June.

Wes just finished up his first-semester teaching responsibilities and will teach a second-semester class starting in mid-August. It will be a new “prep” for him and he would appreciate prayer for wisdom and thoroughness as he gets ready for this new class.

Nancy enjoyed being in Peru for part of the semester with Wes. She was an encouragement to students, especially the women, who are looking at missions life and family in very different circumstances—cross-cultural circumstances—than what they are accustomed to.

Thanks.

Wes

Collins Family May 2016 Prayer Requests

Pray for Wes’ linguistic students. They are about half-way through their first semester and it is pretty intense. In addition to studies, there are some students with financial concerns and family matters. One couple’s toddler just had cleft palate surgery here in Lima. Pray that the group finds strength in Christ.

Pray for the Mam Old Testament translators working in Comitancillo, the Collins family’s old stomping grounds. The community is proud that such work is going on in the Mam language. Pray for enthusiasm from the many local churches as well.

Collins Family April 2016 Prayer Requests

Here are a few prayer requests:

1. We’re very grateful to God that the kids and grandkids are well and learning to trust God. This makes being apart from them a lot more bearable. We certainly don’t take this for granted.

2. Pray for Wes as the course he was planning to teach in Peru has been changed. Now it’s phonology instead of semantics. Either way, pray that the students learn both academically and spiritually to lean on Christ. Not just students, but professors need this too.

Collins Family March 2016 Prayer Requests

1. Pray for Wes as he prepares to teach a semantics class at CILTA, a linguistics training program aimed at preparing Latino young people for full-time cros-cultural ministry. Students will study translation principles, grammar, semantics, phonology and other more "practical courses” over the span of a year at University in Lima, Peru.

2. Pray for the details of bringing 12-15 students from throughout the Americas to in study together in Lima. The training is intense, and it is a necessary step to prepare students for vocational ministry. Pray that the students bond as a class—and with their professors—and that they learn skills for dealing with people in other cultures.

Collins Family February 2016 Prayer Requests

1. We’ll spend a few weeks in February in Hawaii visiting our daughter Amalia and her family (including two of our five grandchildren). This isn’t exactly vacation despite the venue. Pray for Wes as he prepares for the class he’ll be teaching in Peru starting mid-March. He plans to have 15 students from around Latin America. Pray for them as well as they prepare for a year of studies.

2. Many Latin American churches are involved with cross-cultural missions for the first time as their students study linguistics at CILTA. Pray that the folks “back home” understand the importance of spiritual, physical, personal and academic preparation as they send young people into difficult situations. Pray for safety and success.

Collins Family 2015 in Retrospect

Download the Collins Family 2015 in Retrospect with photos here.

2015 was a year of tumult. Immigration was and is a huge issue all over the world, especially in the Near East, in Africa and at the US- Mexico border. Millions have fled their homes and homelands rather than face incredible terror and/or squalor. This is a very complex problem, not made any clearer with the sound-bite solutions offered up by competing presidential nominees.

ISIS cruelty was and is on constant display. Paris was shaken, as was America when “radicalized Islamists” shot up a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California. The very freedom we appreciate is what makes us vulnerable to attack from within.

Collins January 2016 Prayer Requests

Here are a few prayer requests for the Collins:

1. The Collins will be visiting some of their partner churches in January. Pray for good fellowship and ministry.

2. 2016 marks the first year that the literacy ministry, LAMP, will be on its own financially. Pray that they have the Godly ministry that would attract support and that the ministry itself would build a readership for the coming Mam Bible.

Collins Family December 2015 Update

Download the Collins December 2015 Update here.

Dear and good friends,

Greetings from 70-­?degree North Carolina. Merry Christmas to you all. It feels more like the 4th of July than Christmas, but we’ll take it. Elisa and family and Nan and I, plus Nan’s mom, plan to visit Isaac and Elizabeth in Atlanta for Christmas. We’re excited. We plan to see Molly and her family (in Hawaii) in February.

I‘ve been back from Guatemala for almost three weeks. A few comments: